The Rules of Twister
by SamCyberCat
Summary: Ryo didn’t play board games. ‘Didn’t’ being past tense. Ryo/Fubuki.


Notes – For the gx_100. Set during season one, after the events of the Seven Stars. This one had to be written, and a few of you will probably know why. If not then don't worry; it won't affect reading the story too much.

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There were certain things that normal people only did around Christmas. Not particularly festive things, but just things that changing technology had ruled out doing the rest of the year round.

Board games, for example. As much as people said it was a sad thing they were dying out, in reality most kids were too busy playing video games or duelling with the latest holographic technology to play something that involved rolling a dice and moving little counters around a board.

The only time people usually played them was at Christmas, when the kids' parents got nostalgic and found the need to hunt out some old Monopoly board from a storage cupboard for the whole family to pass sometime before dinner.

That was how normal people regarded board games.

Which was why Ryo looked a little bit bemused when Fubuki marched into his room carrying a long, flat box that could only contain one of those games.

"Why have you brought it here?" he asked automatically, this being far from the first time Fubuki had come to his room carrying something strange.

"Because of what you told me a while ago," Fubuki answered, putting the box down onto Ryo's bed and taking the lid off.

"Which was?" The issue with that was that Ryo told Fubuki a fair few things, and Fubuki had a habit of mostly listening to the stuff that Ryo would rather he didn't.

Pulling out a spinning counter, Fubuki said, "About how you didn't play many board games as a kid."

"Oh, that's not a big deal." It wasn't. His family just weren't particularly the sort of people who did.

"I think it's a big deal! You'll end up dead inside if you don't play board games, Ryo. So I picked out the most fun one that I could possibly think of," said Fubuki cheerfully.

That did worry Ryo. Fubuki's idea of fun tended to loud and dangerous. Though these were board games, what could possibly be loud or dangerous about any of them?

A large plastic sheet with multicoloured dots was held up in front of his face.

"I don't even think Twister qualifies as a board game," Ryo said flatly.

"Come on, Ryo. Everyone loves Twister," Fubuki insisted, laying the sheet out on the floor.

'Everyone' was probably a highly exaggerated figure, but regardless Ryo knew he probably wasn't going to get out of this until Fubuki was satisfied. Shou came from the same family as Ryo, he wondered if over in the Red dorm he had to put up with Juudai forcing him to play inappropriate games as well.

"I'm not sure how you're going to spin the, um, spinner if we're both playing," Ryo said, coming close to admitting defeat.

"Oh, don't worry about that, I'm very flexible," Fubuki assured, spinning the pointer around, "Now, left foot red."

"Excuse me?"

"Put your left foot on one of the red dots."

"I got that, I'm just having trouble accepting that we're really going to play this," said Ryo, hesitantly putting his foot down where he was told.

After spinning again, Fubuki said, "Now I have to put my right hand on one of the other red ones."

He plonked a hand down confidently, all too close to Ryo's leg for Ryo's personal liking. Then he grinned up at his friend, before moving the pointer with his free hand.

"Now you have to put your right hand on blue," he told Ryo.

"But you're in the way," Ryo replied.

"That's the idea of the game, you've got to navigate around me," Fubuki said, a little too enthusiastically.

Silently, Ryo moved to do this. He tried as best he could to get to the dot without touching Fubuki but it really was impossible. It almost seemed as if Fubuki had purposely put himself in a pose where Ryo had no choice but to make contact with him.

"Spin it again," Ryo said, wanting to get this out of the way quickly.

After turning it again Fubuki reached a hand out to a yellow circle, and thus the game went on. Turn after turn they continued, with each position being as undignified as the last. It was no wonder that Fubuki loved this game so much; it was a perfect way to see people in all kinds of strange poses without so much as having to flirt with them.

Within a few more minutes Ryo was faced with his next major problem, "All of the green ones are taken."

"That means you have to keep your hand in the air until a space becomes clear or you get another colour," Fubuki said, "Or at least I think that's what it means. Most people don't bother reading the rules and just make it up as they go along."

So not only were they playing something that barely qualified as a board game but also they were playing it without knowing the rules.

Lifting his hand into the air Ryo tried as hard as he could not to fall over. He might not approve of this game but he certainly wasn't going to lose.

"Now let's see, left foot yellow," mumbled Fubuki, following the commands effortlessly.

Not for the first time that day Ryo found Fubuki's ass in front of his face. And he was starting to get the gist of why this game was going on.

He knew that when it came to outright flexibility it was not likely that he would beat Fubuki. The boy spent so much time surfing and working on other physical fitness activities that he was perfectly in shape for a game like this. But the one thing that Ryo did have over Fubuki was cunning…

"Right, now you have to put your- …Hey! What are you doing?" Fubuki called, trying not to laugh at the tingly feeling down the side of his leg, "Are you… tickling me?"

"Just thought I'd use that free hand to my advantage," purred Ryo.

"You can't, th-that's… chea…ting!"

By the time that sentence was finished Fubuki had collapsed to the floor and was trying to get his breath back.

"You cheater!" he called, rolling over to look up at Ryo, "And I thought you were an honest man."

Smirking, Ryo pulled himself up from the board and said, "You told me that the rules were made up as we went along, so I was just making use of a hand that wasn't already allocated to be somewhere else."

"Fine, you got me," said Fubuki, taking the hand Ryo offered out to help him up, "But next time we read the rules properly."

"Next time?"

"Admit it, you had as much fun as I did," Fubuki said.

Ryo replied, "All right, it was entertaining. But next time we should play a different board game. Wouldn't want people to end up thinking I'm some sort of Twister addict."

That made Fubuki laugh too.

"Why on Earth would anyone think that?"


End file.
